Anyone who’s ever written about music and is not employed by, say, Billboard or Rolling Stone can appreciate The A.V. Club’s priceless list of The Worst Band Names of 2007.
There’s no telling what horrors lurk behind such hideous monikers as The Color Fred, Comanche Abortion, The Pleasures of Merely Circulating, Chevy Metal or Cobra Bubbles.
Their [...]

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Amidst the holly and ivy, head colds and lay-a-way lines of this most wonderful time of the year, music critics of all thoughts and tastes cozy up beside the fire and begin making a list. Was the newest Bruce Springsteen record naughty? Was the Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible nice? Checked over twice or more, he [...]

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According The Slut, Jens Lekman is coming back! Better buy your tix now, as these shows are sure to sell out.
3-13 Austin, TX - Mohawk
3-14 Dallas, TX - Granada
3-21 Los Angeles, CA - Henry Fonda
3-22 San Fran, CA - Bimbo’s 365
3-23 San Fran, CA - Bottom Of The Hill
3-24 Portland, OR - Berbati’s Pan
3-25 [...]

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Albums are ranked solely based on listening habits.
Eric Greenwood:
1. Of Montreal, Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?, Polyvinyl
This could have been a catastrophe. It’s an indulgent morass of diary-style lyrics so severely private it’s often too uncomfortable to ingest were it not for the countless hooks, layered, pitch-perfect harmonies, and unforgettably catchy synth riffs. I [...]

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Paste Magazine got some attention on the interwebs this week for naming The National’s Boxer the best record of 2007, but contributing editor Jeff Leven got in on the list making with “The Greatest Riffs of the 21st Century (So Far)”.
“To make its way into the canon of great riffs alongside, say, ‘Purple Haze’ or [...]

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Music for Kids Who Can’t Read Good has a nice collection of downloadable tracks that work well with Phase, the iTunes/iPod video game.
Personally, I’ve enjoying playing Phase with DJ Shadow, Depeche Mode, Death Becomes Even The Maiden, and Smashing Pumpkins. Oh, and Future Sound of London. I tried Battles, but it was a [...]

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I honestly can’t complain too much about this arbitrary list of the 11 best Joy Division songs, even with some unsurprising balkers making some noise. I’d probably jumble the order around a bit, while, perhaps, swapping out one or two selections, but, overall, it’s nothing to get a Joy Division fan’s dander up. Control opens [...]

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Blender’s lists always need to be taken with an extra grain of salt, but this one  sort of semi-accurately collects a handful of the some of the worst offenders. The order just seems a bit jumbled. I mean Sting certainly has over-stepped the bounds of pretentiousness on more than one occasion (name-dropping Nabokov was bad enough, but mispronouncing [...]

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The Catbird seat has done your homework and mocked your blog by compiling the projected nominees for the ever-predictable, year-end best-of lists. Everyone knows these lists are meaningless and arbitrary, but everyone seems to compile them anyway. So, if you’ve been lazy this year and want to make sure you’re catering to fleeting tastes of [...]

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Mental Floss serves up a mostly predictable tally of “23 Album Covers That Changed Everything.” Why 23 and not 20 or 25? How the shit should I know? It’s not important. I mean, the burning man on the cover of Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here really was on fire for chrissakes. Damn.
Meanwhile, the mother [...]

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A friend of mine visited Canada some years ago, and his recount of that trip left me with the impression that our neighbors to the north were freaks for Rod Stewart, Dairy Queen and ketchup-flavored potato chips.
Granted, that was before The Arcade Fire’s Funeral had become a requirement for your hipster merit badge or before [...]

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